Foreigner’s head dumped in southern Philippines

The head of a foreign man is dumped on a remote southern Philippine island on Monday, authorities say, hours after a ransom deadline passed for two Canadians and a Norwegian held hostage by Islamic militants.

Police say two people on a motorbike dropped the head near city hall on Jolo, a mostly lawless island about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) south of Manila that is one of the main strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf militant group.

“We found a head in a plastic bag,” provincial police chief Wilfredo Cayat tells AFP.

He says the head belonged to a Caucasian man, but emphasized it was impossible to immediately identify. The local police chief issues a report to journalists with similar details.

Canadian tourists John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Norwegian resort manager Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipina Marites Flor were kidnapped seven months ago from yachts at a marina near the major city of Davao, more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from Jolo.

Six weeks after the abduction, Abu Sayyaf gunmen released a video on social media of their hostages held in a jungle setting demanding one billion pesos ($21 million) each for the safe release of the three foreigners.

The men were forced to beg on camera for their lives, and similar videos were posted over several months in which the hostages looked increasingly frail.

In the most recent video, Ridsdel, a retiree aged in his late 60s, said he would be killed on April 25 if a ransom of 300 million pesos was not paid.

— AFP